Crusted salmon with wild rice and kale

Something about using the word "crusted" in any recipe title bothers me. It turns me off to the food immediately. It makes me think of unpleasant things. Crusty things. And I don't mean yummy bread with a really great crust on it. But for lack of a better title, that's what we get. This started as a healthy cooking reicpe that changed drastically in my hands. The original called for Corn Flakes and wanted to be baked and served over spinach. I had panko and kale and a strong desire to play with wild rice, so this is what I made. We all really enjoyed it.

Crusted salmon over wild rice and kale

Yield: 4 Servings
Prep Time: 30 min.
Cooking Time: 30 min

Ingredients for salmon:
  ● 1 lb salmon
  ● 2 tbsp. honey
  ● 2 tbsp. Dijon mustard
  ● 1/4 cup panko
  ● 2 tbsp. sliced almonds
  ● 2 tbsp. chopped pecans
  ● 1 tbsp. mayonnaise

Ingredients for wild rice and kale:
  ● 1 cup wild rice, uncooked
  ● 3 cups chicken or vegetable broth (divided)
  ● 1 tbsp. olive oil
  ● 1 small onion, diced
  ● 2 cloves garlic, minced
  ● 1 tbsp. Dijon mustard
  ● 1 pinch raw sugar
  ● 1 tbsp. cider vinegar
  ● 1 bunch stemmed, torn and rinsed kale
  ● 1/4 cup dried cranberries
  ● salt and pepper to taste

Directions:
1. Begin with wild rice. Bring 2 cups broth and the rice to a boil. Cover and reduce heat. Simmer for 50 minutes.

2. For salmon, combine honey and mustard. Remove 2 tablespoons mixture and brush over salmon. Run the cornflakes, almonds and pecans in a food processor until roughly ground. Press onto salmon. Stir mayonnaise into remaining honey mixture and refrigerate until serving. Bake, uncovered, at 450° for 18-22 minutes or until fish flakes easily with a fork.

3. For Kale, heat olive oil in a large pot over medium heat. Stir in the onion and garlic; cook and stir until the onion softens and turns translucent, about 5 minutes. Stir in the mustard, sugar, vinegar, 1 cup broth, and cranberries and bring to a boil then reduce to a simmer for 10 minutes or until cranberries are soft. Add the kale and wild rice and cook, stirring to coat, for 5 minutes or until wilted. Top with salmon and drizzle with reserved honey mustard sauce.

Pumpkin gingerbread

Again with the pumpkin! Jon just can't get enough, and it's so easy to prepare pumpkin for baking that I bake a lot of it when it's in season in the fall and freeze it in one and two cup portions for use throughout the winter. I came across this recipe in a Better Homes and Gardens email. The orignal recipe was for two loaves but I was short on flour (imagine) so I cut it in half. I also used 1/2 whole wheat instead of all white flour and I added nuts (because we're nuts for nuts). The recipe below is my own take.

Pumpkin Gingerbread

Yield: one 9 x 5″ loaf

Ingredients:
  ● 1 1/2 cups raw sugar
  ● 1/2 cup canola oil
  ● 2 eggs
  ● 1/3 cup fat free milk
  ● 1 cup pumpkin puree
  ● 1 tsp. ground ginger
  ● 1/2 tsp. ground allspice
  ● 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
  ● 1/2 tsp. ground cloves
  ● 1 3/4 cups flour
  ● 1 tsp. baking soda
  ● 1/2 tsp. salt
  ● 1/4 tsp. baking powder
  ● ~1 cup pecans, roughly chopped

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and a 9 x 5″ loaf pan. In large bowl combine sugar, oil and eggs; beat until smooth. Add milk and beat until well blended. Stir in pumpkin, ginger, allspice, cinnamon, and cloves. In medium bowl, combine flour (I used 1/2 white, 1/2 whole wheat), baking soda, salt, and baking powder. Add dry ingredients to pumpkin mixture and blend just until all ingredients are mixed. Fold in nuts. Divide batter between prepared pans. Bake in preheated oven at 350 degrees for 1 hour, or until toothpick inserted in center of loaves comes out clean. Let loaves cool in pans for about 5 minutes, then remove from pans and let cool completely before adding glaze, if desired.

Shrimp with polenta

Calvin loves shrimp so I'm always looking for new ways to use it. I found this recipe in Healthy Cooking as Makeover Shrimp and Grits, but thought Polenta would be a better flavor so I made that and some other changes to the original recipe. We loved it, so here's my version.

Shrimp and Polenta

Yield: 4 Servings
Prep Time: 30 min
Cooking Time: 15 min

Ingredients:
  ● 1 cup uncooked polenta
  ● 2 center-cut bacon strips
  ● 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
  ● 1/4 tsp. pepper
  ● 1 lb. uncooked medium shrimp, peeled and deveined
  ● 1 cup sliced fresh mushrooms
  ● 4 green onions, chopped
  ● 2 garlic cloves, minced
  ● 2 tbsp. lemon juice
  ● 1/2 cup chicken or veggie broth
  ● 1/3 cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese
  ● 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
  ● 2 tbsp. reduced-fat butter

Directions:
Cook polenta according to package directions. Meanwhile, combine flour and pepper and coat shrimp; set aside. In a large nonstick skillet, cook bacon over medium heat until crisp then remove to paper towels to drain. Saute mushrooms in the bacon drippings until tender. Add the onions, garlic and shrimp; cook and stir until shrimp turn pink. Stir in the lemon juice, broth, cheeses and butter into the Polenta. Serve topped with shrimp mixture and bacon, crumbled. Yield: 4 servings.

Nutrition Facts (based on preparation with grits cooked with half and half): 1-1/4 cups grits with 1/2 cup shrimp mixture equals 423 calories, 12 g fat (6 g saturated fat), 165 mg cholesterol, 784 mg sodium, 46 g carbohydrate, 2 g fiber, 32 g protein.

Cranberry Relish

One of my favorite parts of the Thanksgiving meal is the cranberry relish, not the gooey sticky kind that comes mostly from a can but the fresh chunky kind made from whole, organic ingredients. I guess I like my cranberry relish they way I like my salsa. This recipe came from allrecipes.com orignally, and I added the nuts (why wouldn't you add nuts? Just don't forget to add them at the last minute to keep them from getting too soft from all the moisture).

Cranberry Relish, fresh style

Origin: allrecipes.com
Yield: about 3 cups.
Prep Time: 15 minutes.

Ingredients:
  ● 2 cups raw cranberries, washed
  ● 2 tart apples, skinned and cored
  ● 1 large whole (peel ON) seedless orange, cut into sections
  ● 1-2 cups granulated sugar to taste

Directions:
1. Use a food grinder with a medium-sized blade to chop up the berries, apples, and orange (pith and all). You can also chop by hand (wow, that's a lot of work) or use a food processor (but be careful not to over-pulse or it will become mush).

2. Mix in the sugar. Let sit at room temperature until sugar dissolves, about 45 minutes. Store in the refrigerator.

Yum.

Pizzas as pumpkins

This is not a recipe post, but an idea post. I told my mother yesterday that we would be making pumpkin pizzas for dinner and as soon as I saw the loook of doubt come over her face I realized I needed to change my naming. We weren't making pumpkin pizzas, after all, but pizzas that looked like pumpkins. We made three different pumpkin shapped pizzas (really, what pizza isn't already kind of pumpkin shaped) and we each decorated one of them with pepperoni. Other fun pumpkin shaped ideas are, of course, cookies, and also pancakes. Those are the easy ones, if you get more adventurous you can always cut pumpkin shaped tea sandwiches...